On the basis of the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate for each application, including
Printing Inks
Adhesives
Masterbatches
Plastics
Rubber
Others

DETROIT — The autonomous Uber SUV that struck and killed an Arizona pedestrian in March spotted the woman about six seconds before hitting her, but did not stop because the system used to automatically apply brakes in potentially dangerous situations had been disabled, according to federal investigators. In a preliminary report on the crash, the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday that emergency braking is not enabled while Uber's cars are under computer control, "to reduce the potential for erratic vehicle behavior." Instead, Uber relies on a human backup driver to intervene. The system, however, is not designed to alert...

DETROIT — A Michigan Supreme Court justice has a message for judges who seem to seek vengeance: cool it, folks. Justice Bridget McCormack said judges should drop rhetoric that "would validly call into question judicial impartiality." She said it's important these days, especially "when our norms of public discourse appear under stress." McCormack was referring to a Jackson County case involving a man who broke into the home of a police officer and trashed it, even breaking a 100-gallon (380-liter) aquarium. Judge John McBain said he wished the officer would have returned home in time. "Because you know what?" McBain...

LONDON — We meet again, Mr. Bond — or maybe not. Britain's MI6 intelligence service has made its first-ever television ad, aiming to banish macho James Bond-style imagery and attract more women and ethnic-minority recruits. The TV spot shows a shark gliding through an aquarium, watched by a child who backs away nervously before being comforted by his mother. A voiceover says that, as an intelligence officer, "it is not keeping your cool in the shark tank, it is picking up the silent cues that matter." The ad, airing Thursday on British TV, ends: "MI6: Secretly we are just like...

HELENA, Mont. — The head of the Montana Democratic Party on Thursday asked for a congressional ethics investigation into whether Republican U.S. Rep. Greg Gianforte lied to the police and the public when he assaulted a reporter last year. The request by the party's executive director, Nancy Keenan, comes exactly one year after Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs said Gianforte "body slammed" him for asking a question the day before Gianforte won a special election for Montana's only U.S. House seat. The former technology entrepreneur is running for re-election in November. Gianforte eventually pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and said Jacobs...

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday signed into law a measure that loosens key restraints for banks imposed after the 2008 financial crisis and Great Recession. Savoring the legislative triumph, he called it "the next step in America's unprecedented economic comeback." The Republican-crafted bill passed Congress on Tuesday with the help of some Democratic votes and allowed Trump to fulfill his campaign pledge of dismantling the landmark Dodd-Frank law. The 2010 law was enacted by President Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress in response to the crisis that brought millions of lost jobs and foreclosed homes. Trump held a...